Devoted to terrorism research, the political fringe, sports, parapolitics, and a little bit of griping.

October 27, 2013

Some of you may have bought the Sony Xperia mobile phone, which has had rave reviews. I was able to get one free when I am renewed my mobile phone package.

It claims the best water resistance of any smartphone, and took out newspaper advertising to that effect earlier this year.

Don't believe it. Whilst placing son number two on the toilet on a blearry eyed morning, with the phone in the breast pocket of my pyjamas, the inevitable happened. Needless to say despite immediate retrieval, the phone has never worked since.

I have now returned to my old Blackberry.

When it comes to technology, from mobile phone salesman to those offering new IT systems for the NHS I recommend one, very simple line. Don't Believe The Hype.

October 15, 2013

"Guerillas have always gone where the cover is. The cover used to be in the jungles, but now we have foilage-penetrating radar, so they can be seen under the jungle canopy. It used to be that the cover was in the mountains, but now we have satellites and drones. The cover now is in the city, and there are big areas in cities in the developing world with no government or police presence."

David Kilcullen, in The World Today, October-November 2013, Vol 69, No.5, pp.32-33.

Certainly in terms of Al Qaeda, Kilcullen appears to be on to something. Whilst the convention built up that Bin Laden and co were hiding out in the mountainous border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, in practice many of the most significant figures were instead to be found in Pakistan's towns and cities. Consider not just Bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2011, but also Abu Zubaydah (Faisalabad, 2002) Ramzi Binalshibh
(Karachi, 2002) and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (probably in Quetta in 2003,
although this is disputed).

I am yet to read Kilcullen's book, so it is not immediately clear to me how this coming urban guerilla relates to the western urban guerilla of 1970s and 1980s fame. Whilst some of those groups, like the Red Army Faction, at times proved militarily sophisticated they were often more pussycat than tiger, in large part because they developed little resonance amongst the broader working class. Also the urban guerilla tended to still need a safe haven outside of the cities where they operated - for the Red Army Faction, East Germany, for the IRA, the Irish Republic.

October 14, 2013

BBC Radio 4 is in the middle of a lunchtime series examining the history of terrorism - Terror Through Time, presented by Feargal Keane.

The programmes are at 1345 each day, and run for fifteen minutes. I listended to Fridays, which mostly featured the Sykes-Picot Agreement, one of those rather shameful episodes of our history that most Britons know very little about. I personally found it a little slow paced, but with six more episodes to come, and a lot of ground to cover, that will surely change.

The academic advisor for the programme was the excellent Richard English of St Andrews University, whose "Terrorism: How to Respond" is important reading to anyone studying this subject.

October 11, 2013

One one level, this is curious. Snowden was not a British citizen, was not employed by a British intelligence agency and had few if any connections to the United Kingdom. Ostensibly he should have been able to access very little information that could damage this country.

The problem of course is that the British intelligence agencies long ago traded any independence they had for a 'seat at the top table' next to the United States. A 'what's ours is yours' approach seems to have ensured, with GCHQ at Cheltenham even accepting a stipend from the US to do snooping work for it. All of which meant that instead of only Tom, Dick or Harriet having access to classified British information, it was available to any Ed, Chuck or Earl the Yanks saw fit to give it to.

And in this case it was Ed.

Whether Edward Snowden has damaged British security is unclear to me. What is clear is that he should never have been in a position to do so - and if he was, the blame for that lies in the UK, not the USA.

October 07, 2013

Lots of people have had their say on Mehdi Hasan's rant against the prejudices of the Daily Mail on Question Time, and the subsequent publication of his earlier, obsequious letter to the same paper, asking for a job.

It is an indication of how confused the political compass of the UK has become that Hasan is a darling of much of the left, when he is very much on the right on social issues. He is clearly pitching in his letter to add a Muslim perspective to the Mail's coverage of issues such as teenage pregnanices and family breakdowns.

Part of this confusion comes from what I see as a failure to take the ideas of religious actors, and more accurately in Hasan's case politico-religious actors, seriously. By and large such people mean what they say on social issues, something the left in particular is rather poor at grasping. If you want to know the type of society such beliefs create given the opportunity, take a look at the bible belt in the United States or most Muslim majority nations.

When the Rev Ian Paisely formed the Democratic Unionist Party, he stated he was forming a party that would be to the left on economic issues, but on the right on social and constitutional matters. Take out the constitutional bit, and I can't help thinking that is where Mehdi Hasan stands politically.

October 04, 2013

There have been no posts on here for a while, whilst I finished my PhD. "British Jihadism: The Detail and the Denial" was submitted yesterday and hopefully over the coming days and weeks I can get back to doing some things other than researching men with beards!

I do seem to have been the target of spammers in recent weeks - go away. This site is open again, but not for you.